Owls

A few weeks ago I was asked to do a comission project: a mobile for a nursery. A friend of a friend wanted one and... long story short now I'm making her one. I'd never made any owls before, only birds from the Spool pattern. But I found some super cute illustrations of owls for inspiration and made my own pattern and came up with this! Here is my test bird and I think she turned out so cute.

I just did an outline of the body with an elliptical shape on the bottom so it can sit. The wings are quilted and then hot glued onto the body, as are the felt eyes and beak. It's a great way to mix and match fabrics.

The mobile is for a boy and I was sent fabrics they had picked out. Just a word of advice, if you ever do a comission piece, always have the person pick out their fabric. There is no chance you will ever agree on colors, patterns, anything. Trust me.

I had never balanced sticks in a tier pattern before. That was an interesting learning curve. I finally realized that each stick needed a tripod of fishing line to balance, at least the way I did it.

I made 3 extra owls for a diaper cake they wanted to decorate. And then a flat version for a bib decoration.

I really am satisfied with how they came out.

Now I know what you're thinking... You should sell these! Sorry, I've had enough owl sewing to last at least a year. But let me encourage you to make your own stuffed creatures--it's really a lot easier than it looks!

Smocked Dresses

I decided to try using elastic thread to make a smocked/shirred dress for my daughter to wear this summer. I followed Dana's instructions from her blog MADE. Both versions I made were from tank tops that don't fit me very well. This blue one was too big for me, and is consequently too big around for my daughter. The yellow tanktop is too small for me, and the dress came out too small for her too!

Using a tank top instead of starting from scratch made the project take less than 45 minutes to make. I am not kidding, start to finish was under 45 minutes--and that was the first time I'd ever used elastic thread in my machine!

Just cut off the straps, turn down the top edge, do your shirring, make a big hem, then sew the straps back on only much shorter. Super easy! And super cute! Can you believe I haven't taken a picture of her in it yet?

I ended up giving the yellow one to a friend whose daughter is smaller than mine. And the blue one looks fine, she just has some room to grow.

I'm really contemplating making a shirred dress for myself, but I'm trying to figure out how to prevent it from looking too juvenile. Any ideas on an adult version?

Kilt

It's finally done. Woven and sewn by hand. I have to say I'm actually pretty excited that it came out so well. I really was not expecting it to. I wore it to the Weavers Guild meeting last week and they snapped these pictures for me. (Yes, matching those stripes was pretty tedious.)




I would never have been able to sew it correctly if I hadn't been able to borrow a book from a fellow guild member--thanks Wendy! The Art of Kiltmaking by Barbara Tewksbury was wonderfully written and easy to follow. I have to say two things about using the book: 1) I think she is a little basting-happy. Pins work just as well for about half of the times she has you baste. 2) I am very glad I was working with my fluffy handwoven cloth and not some finer machine woven cloth--none of my stitches show because they just kind of get covered up by the yarn. I am a horribly messy and inconsistent hand-stitcher and it would look pretty awful if you could see all my stitches.

I also got to wear it to our annual dance performance at the Renaissance Festival. Let me just say, this skirt is absolutely amazing to dance in. It swishes really high and twirls wonderfully--every girl's dream right? I took the baby with me and she had her own "wee-kilt" and bonnet to wear. She was the star of the show of course. Her kilt was made as a gift by Wendy, it's in the Campbell tartan in case you're wondering.

I am so glad I spent all that time to make this kilt (2 months!), but would I ever do it again? Probably not. If you're interested in making your own kilt, it's very straightforward to sew. I would definitely sew one again, but I would buy the cloth instead of weaving it. The book estimates that a first-time kiltmaker will spend 40 hours sewing one. I think I did it in around 20 hours. (Maybe it's because I skipped all that basting!)

Do you have any projects that took forever, but were worth it in the end? Or not worth it?

Bird Mobile

This is one of the few hand-made things that I thought would be worthwhile for a baby. The birds were amazingly easy and quick. The branch is cut and hung easily too--this one is from our crabapple tree. I really like the organic shapes of the branch and birds together, whether a baby knows what they are or not it's nice for me to look at!

The pattern is from Spool and there is a huge flickr pool of ideas.

It was really fun going to my favorite fabric store (Sarah's in Lawrence, KS) and picking out all the different colors. I bought fat quarters of every color and only used about 1/6 of each piece, so I'm trying to decide on another project to use them with.

This bird is one I made for a friend who just had her baby. The two-color combinations are endless.

Here's a picture I took of what the baby sees lying in the crib. And to my delight, I actually caught her looking and cooing at them the other morning--yay, it works!

And if you don't know any babies to make them for, I thought they'd look great on a Christmas tree or even as a wall decoration in the house. (I'll probably be making more of them at some point for one or both of these purposes.)

Do you know of any super-quick-and-easy projects like this? It seems like good ones are hard to find.

Excuses...

I really do have a good excuse for the long absence:

Our daughter, Galena Rose, was born March 13 at 2:17 pm, 8 lbs 6 oz, 20 1/2 inches long. We've been pretty busy just enjoying her company.

I do have lots of projects to post about, so hopefully I'll get to that soon.

Baby Gift

My friend is having her baby in the next few weeks and I thought this lamb was so adorable, I just had to make it. The pattern is from an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.

The baby's name is Lydia, and in the Bible Lydia is a dyer of purple, so I made it in purple herringbone wool. I'm not sure if I like the ears embroidered, but it's kind of too late to take it back out, oh well.

The pattern is very easy and quick. The only downside is working with such a small size and lots of curves. But I've never made a stuffed animal before, and it was pretty straightforward.

I thought it looked so nice next to my blueberries!